SORRE, MAX. Les Fondements de la géographie humaine. Tome II: Les Fondements techniques, Part 2. Pp. 430. Paris: Librairie Armand Colin, 1950. 1000 fr
| Author | S. Van Valkenburg |
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625127400160 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
231
is
a
brief
summary
of the
significant
areal
and
climatic
information,
then
a
brief
anal-
ysis
of
the
tremendous
area
of
potential
oil-bearing
land,
followed
by
a
study
of
the
developed
fields.
He
correlates
the
very
small
area
of
development
with
the
water
routes
which
have,
alone,
made
exploitation
possible
in
the
past.
He
concludes
that
the
Soviet
Union
has
more
than
twice
as
much
potential
oil
area
as
the
United
States
and
may,
with
anything
like
the
intensity
of
development
applied
in
this
country,
even-
tually
produce
more
than
one
and
one-half
times
as
much
oil.
He
is,
however,
careful
to
point
out
the
geography
of
the
Soviet
Union
and
its
oil
resources
which
makes
such
a
degree
of
utilization
much
harder
in
that
country.
A
very
useful
portion
of
the
regional
analysis
consists
of
chapters
on
&dquo;Petroleum
in
Polar
Areas&dquo;
and
&dquo;Petroleum
on
the
Continental
Shelves.&dquo;
Both
the
arctic
and
antarctic
regions
are
geologically
potential
oil-bearing
areas,
and
the
existence
of
oil
within the
Arctic
Circle
has
been
proven.
The
problems
of
low
temperatures
as
they
affect
operating
crews,
drilling,
and
trans-
portation
are
examined,
and
it
is
concluded
that
they
are
far
from
insurmountable
if
market
factors
favor
exploitation.
As
to
the
continental
shelf,
the
chapter
by
the
senior
editor
concludes
that
the
geological
conditions
there
indicate
a
volume
of
po-
tential
petroliferous
rock
&dquo;more
than dou-
ble
the
estimated
volume
of
favorable
sedi-
ments
within
the
land
areas.&dquo;
A
final
chapter
of
the
regional
analysis
entitled
&dquo;The
Major
Areas
of
Discovered
and
Prospective
Oil&dquo;
is
a
very
effective
summary,
in
five
pages,
of
the
world
geog-
raphy
of
petroleum
as a
resource.
The
final
section
of
some
seventy
pages
on
&dquo;Aspects
of
Utilization&dquo;
may
perhaps
contain
the
greatest
direct
interest
for
social
scientists.
Here
are
chapters
on
&dquo;Availability-Today
and
Tomorrow&dquo;
(by
Kirtley
F.
Mather),
&dquo;Geographical
Aspects
of-Use
in
World
War
II&dquo;
(by
the
Army-
Navy
Petroleum
Board),
&dquo;World
Patterns
of
Civilian
Utilization&dquo;
(by
John
F.
Frey),
a
very
useful
critique
of
statistical
sources
(by
A.
Van
Barkalow),
and,
finally,
&dquo;The
Effect
of
World
Distribution
of
Petroleum
on
the
Power
and
Policy
of
Nations&dquo;
(by
Herbert
Feis).
The
appendix
contains
comparative
statistics,
conversion
tables,
an
extensive
bibliography,
and
a
glossary.
The
care
used
in
editing
and
publishing
this
book
is
indicated
by
the
size
of
the
index:
it
occupies
twenty-seven
double-column
pages.
LESTER
E.
KLIMM
University
of
Pennsylvania
SORRE,
MAX.
Les
Fondements
de
la
géo-
graphie
humaine.
Tome
II:
Les Fonde-
ments
techniques,
Part
2.
Pp.
430.
Paris:
Librairie
Armand
Colin,
1950.
1000
fr.
In
this
volume,
Professor
Sorre
continues
his
presentation
of
the
Human
Geography
of
the
world,
describing
many
economic
activities
from
the
premature
stage
up
to
modern
industrial
development.
Again
one
is
struck
by
the
width
of
his
knowledge,
especially
in
details.
It
is
in
our
time
of
specialization
a
surprise
to
find
a
geog-
rapher
who
knows
all
phases
of
geography
of the
world
so
well.
Moreover
each
chap-
ter
contains
a
wealth
of
reference
material
somewhat
heavy
on
the
Latin
side
but,
just
because
of
that,
most
valuable.
It
is
un-
derstandable
that
such
a
book
is
not
light
reading,
and
it
needs
courage
as
well
as
grim
determination
to
read
it
from
cover
to
cover.
There
is
however
one
outstanding
weak-
ness.
There
are
only
a
few
maps
and
charts,
and
a
book
of
this
kind
should
have
a
large
number.
But
that
would
not
be
so
bad
if
those
which
are
given
were
well selected
and
were
referred
to
in
the
text.
There
are
in
most
cases
no
references
at
all
in
the
text
to
the
maps
or
charts,
and
of
those
given
some
of
them
are
self-explanatory,
others
are
not.
Here
are
some
examples:
The
chapter
on
soil
fertility
and
the
use
of
a
period
of
fallowness
is
illustrated
by
a
map
of
the
use
of
the
land
around
a
small
village
in
the
Alsace.
It
is
a
complicated
map
with
different
shadings
and
many
fig-
ures,
but
there
is
no
key
at
all,
and
in
the
text
the
map
is
not
referred
to.
In
the
chapter
on
steel
production
is
a
little
chart
of
the
capacity
of
the
steel
mills
in
Britain
between
1840
and
1925.
Why
stop
at
1925?
Again
there
is
no
reference
in
the
text.
I
could
take
practically
any
illustra-
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